The Infinite Universe
by Zone-Meister
Summary: Once a mighty empire in the Milky Way with a population numbering in the hundreds of billions, now reduced to a paltry few by a terrible enemy,they have won the war, but at a terrible price, now with nothing more than their heritage with them, they travel to a new Galaxy, to Andromeda. Mainly a Destiny and Mass Effect crossover, with other, minor x-overs. My first fic!
1. Chapter 1

_**Life is divided into three terms, that which was, which is, and which will be. Let us learn from the past to profit by the present, and from the present, to live better in the future.**_

 _ **William Wordsworth**_

 _ **Prologue : In the Beginning**_

 _ **Humanity….we have come along way, evolving, adapting and surviving on our homeworld, Earth…..our home. As we mastered ourselves and survived on a hostile world, we grew, we changed, we created wonders and made grand voyages of discovery across our world. We had our ups and downs of course, an ice age nearly drove us to extinction, plagues and diseases as well, but in the end it mattered little. We overcame those challenges and continued our steady march across the world. Along the way we grasped technology and created tools and weapons to aid on our survival, and soon we were everywhere…..our place as the dominant species assured, our superiority forever separated us from the rest of the animal kingdom.**_

 _ **But like all species on the world, we had our conflicts, but our wars were vastly more devastating than anything the world has ever seen. From the Great War of 1918 to World War 2 which ended with the ushering of the Nuclear Age. Millions dead in these conflicts, perhaps reaching a billion, but in the end of the day, those are nothing more than numbers, statistics, an ever increasing list of deaths because we were unable to see past our own hubris and greed and weakness. But despite all of this…..hope remained. For a few of us were able to see past our own weakness and connect with each other, bypassing religion, race, ethnicity and other trivialities that kept us apart. And then were others, others that ignored everything else, and looked to the stars….**_

 _ **As we reached the middle of the 21st century, a war happened…. a war that would change everything….World War 3, The War that Never Was. No one knows why that disaster was called that except the man who created that moniker, Stephen Hawking. He would later take that secret to his grave, it is said to this very day that he died because he was unable to bear seeing how humanity was slaughtering each other.**_

 _ **The war had started because of the economic collapse of Greece, which lead to complete and utter chaos in Eastern Europe, which proved to be a catalyst to show how powerless the European Union and by extension NATO and the UN really are. The United States, bogged down in countless conflicts, was a tired and war weary nation, a dying empire that was bound to collapse unless something was done. A new President, Harvey McArthur, managed to reverse the tied by initiating sweeping political and social reforms, this however lead to a civil war in the US, a war which forced the US to turn inwards and lose all it's influence in the rest of the world. The Middle East, with it's violence barely kept in check by US forces fell apart and tore itself into pieces over religion and ethnicity. South America was the next to fall, the rise of the high tech criminal corporation known as the C.A.R.T.E.L led to the subjugation of most of the Southern continent in months with the sole exception of Chile.**_

 _ **The conflict of Eastern Europe spilled into the West, the now defunct EU was replaced with the new Western Security Council (WSC) to help defend Western Europe's interests, as East and West fought for control and supremacy, all over the world battle lines were being drawn, China, badly weakened by internal division and economic weakness looked outwards with an expansionist view towards her neighbours and Asia in general, barely hanging on to power, China decided the best way to go on was to conquer it's neighbours to keep the people occupied on the glories of war.**_

 _ **Russia and China were now facing each other, The US ended their isolation to come to the aid of Japan and South Korea who were being threatened by China and North Korea respectively, the C.A.R.T.E.L was now probing the US southern border that was once the Mexican-US border, minor skirmishes turned in bloodbaths that would very soon turn ugly. India and Pakistan were now harassing each other across the border….**_

 _ **All around the world….lines were drawn.**_

 _ **All it needs is a spark.**_

 _ **On 1830 hours standard time, March 21st 2051, 5 nuclear weapons detonated on Tokyo, New Delhi, Washington, London and Berlin simultaneously. These 5 great cities disappeared into a mushroom cloud. This was the spark that set of World War 3, a war that lasted for 15 years.**_

 _ **A war that lead to the slaughter of 3 billion humans, out of 8 billion. When the war finally ended, all that was left was ashes and bodies. The horror of the war lead to the survivors banding together….for the first time, we united fully to prevent such a catastrophe from ever happening again…..and for a time it worked….for a decade we enjoyed a peace that can be only described as a Utopia as we rebuilt our civilization…but it wasn't long before our peace was shattered…only this time…..it wasn't us….and the threat came from the stars.**_

 _ **We don't know who they are or what they are….we only know they call themselves the Ethereals, they struck without warning or mercy. On September 27 2076, Ethereal warships appeared above Earth orbit and began disgorging drop pods and drop ships towards Earth, the newly formed United Earth Federation was still recovering from World War 3, with military forces at half strength at best. Thus began another 7 long years of conflict between the UEF and the Ethereals.**_

 _ **The enemy had every advantage conceivable, technology, numbers( through the use of their drone units), supplies and even arcane powers that humans would later come to know as "Psionics"…the reality bending powers of the Ethereals tipped the war to their favor, but we never gave up…we kept fighting and fighting for 7 long years until 29th November 2083….a day that will forever be remembered in shame. We surrendered….bowed down towards our new "masters"...it was a disgrace.**_

 _ **The next 150 years (known as the Phoney War) would be marked with blood, oppression and the rallying cry for freedom, it turns out the Ethereals were looking for the "perfect species". As a race they were complete masters of their powers, the Ethereal Supreme could warp the very fabric of reality to his whims, but as a species, they were dying from an unknown disease and were looking for the perfect species that would "succeed them" as they put it. In the end no one really knows how they intend to do it, but what is known is that the aliens went to obscene and repugnant lengths to force humanity to evolve, for the next 150 years humanity was experimented on, we were systematically segregated and based on a multitude of factors like skin color were experimented on…like animals, The experiments were brutal and inhumane, leading to horrific maiming and death. Our people were exposed to vacuum, extreme heat, cold, and pressures; they were forced to work until they dropped, had weight piled on them until their bones shattered. Some were subject to tortures just to measure their pain tolerance, with nails pulled out to the root, skin flayed off, muscle peeled away, bones snapped and set without pain medication. One notorious experiment essentially cooked slaves( as the Ethereals now called us) alive to see which would last the longest. Others experiments included Bio-Augmentation onto large numbers of humans. The Ethereals also created birthing farms so as to sustain the human population .Naturally we resisted, but the fact that they outgunned and outnumbered us by a large margin was a fact that was not lost upon. That being said, Terra Firma, the resistance organization slowly built up it's strength and technology, never stopping to rescue humans and disrupt Ethereal operations. for 150 years we endured, building our strength and escalating resistance operations, the aliens were never able to subjugate the population as they could never dominate our will, while their psionics ensured that they dominated the open battlefield, for some reason humanity was resistant to mind control, it was probably why the Ethereals were so interested in our species. During the final years of the Phoney War, Terra Firma operatives managed to capture a live Ethereal and a Gollop device, a rumoured device that is used by the aliens to detect psionic potential of a species. The resistance interrogated the Ethereal but for 3 weeks it resisted all forms of interrogation, it wasn't until it was weakened by the mysterious illness that was plaguing the Ethereals and the starvation that set in did we make any headway in interrogating the alien….it was then they discovered the Ethereals morbid interest in our species, it turns out these being were around for a long, long time, longer than even we existed, so long that even they have forgotten how long their species lived in this galaxy. It turns out that mankind had 2 things they required to succeed them, an extremely high psionic potential and a robust physique, the latter he Ethereals lacked, but what really got the Ethereals excited over our race was the fact that as psionically capable as we are, we were also capable of resisting the affects of psionics, to be more specific, mind control and mental persuasion techniques that aliens had at their disposal.. Further interrogation of the alien lead to it's death but we gained one last piece of knowledge that was crucial, the construction and usage of a Gollop chamber, to extrapolate, the Gollop device was a key part of the Gollop chamber, used to not only detect the latent psionic potential but to also awaken it.**_

 _ **The first human psionic, known as the Volunteer was made when he volunteered to be the first to have his latent psionic potential activated, the procedure succeeded, thus, the first human psionic was created. Tests conducted of the Volunteers new psionic powers were extraordinary to say the least, his brain for one, was now operating at 100% capacity, and his body was evolving by the minute, a rate that defied every sort of medical and evolutionary knowledge, a doctor who witnessed his evolution quoted "This rate of evolution can be seen as that of the Borg"…a truer statement than any. Among the changes were that the Volunteer's muscle increased in density and efficiency, the bones became more sturdy, the vital organs became more efficient and quite noticeably his reflexes and senses improved ten-fold.**_

 _ **But what really made psionics dangerous was that the physical changes that the wielder gained paled in comparison to the power of the mind, to be more specific, the wielder of psionics can bring into reality the existence of paranormal abilities. And so it was decided that only the most elite and mentally stable and disciplined members of the resistance would gain the use of psionics, for in the next few years, humanity would launch it's uprising on the alien invaders, we fight to regain our future and our home. There shall be no mercy or quarter given.**_

 _ **Finally after 20 years of preparation, Terra Firma struck, across the world, hundreds of Ethereal military bases were struck, all of them being destroyed simultaneously after several days worth of intense fighting. The Ethereals were bad bloodied but not yet beaten, there were several hidden fortresses that needed to be captured to secure even more valuable technology and the destruction, or preferably capture of the Ethereal temple ship was paramount, to make matters worse was the fact that the Ethereals and their remaining drone units had every intention of making us fight for every inch of ground, going so far as to fire their orbital based laser weapons down on earth to any suspected resistance hideout, or to simply just target cities and towns in hope of drawing attention away from them. The fortresses and the Temple ship also housed factories to create new drones and facilitate repairs, and the Ethereals themselves although weakened, still had enough power to blunt our attacks, it was at this time we saw how terrifying psionics can be, they created violent psionic storms that easily massacred our forces out in the open and forced them to take shelter, slowing down our assault, eventually we were forced to deal with the Ethereals through covert means by sending out assassins and commando teams to eliminate them, the method was successful, but more often than not entire teams, teams that consisted only of Psi-Adepts, were lost in taking down single Ethereals….and so the war slugged on for another 3 years, finally on the year 2236, we had pushed them back to the Temple Ship, in the alien tongue it was called Teppelin.**_

 _ **The assault on Teppelin began on the morning of October 1st 2236, it was bloody battle, with psionics powers being used on a regular basis so much so that the entire terrain of the region was changed, and troops on both sides slaughtering each other with merciless precision, this was a take-no prisoners battle, and he who wins will rule the world and gain a future, and the loser will willow away as a slave.**_

 _ **While the main battle was going on, a assault squad lead by the Volunteer was assigned to assassinate the enemy leadership, the priority target was the Ethereal Supreme and the rest of the Ethereal leadership, as they reached the throne room, they discovered that the Ethereal Supreme was charging a Rift Generator, a super weapon that creates a black hole with the power to destroy the entire solar system if it were to activate, while the Volunteers squad mates were holding off the Ethereals guards, the Volunteer himself slaughtered the entire alien council who tried to stop him and after a protracted fight, killed the Ethereal Supreme, but it was too late, the device was activated, beginning a countdown sequence, it was in that moment the Volunteer received mysterious visions as to what he can do to shut down the Rift Generator at the cost of his own life, it wasn't just him that was receiving visions, every human psionic was getting visions of some sort, realizing what he must do the Volunteer teleports his squad mates away from the failing Temple Ship and creates his own black hole, strong enough to counter the black hole created by the Rift Generator, the resulting clash tore apart the temple ship and distorted the space around them before disappearing in a flash of light.**_

 _ **It was done, humanity had won….the demoralised Ethereals were in despair, most chose to commit suicide, some chose to fight to the bitter end, but it mattered little….we won, we paid through our nose for that victory, but we won.**_

 _ **It took the world an extra 15 years to organise itself, clean up the destruction caused by the aliens and destroy any remaining alien resistance. Finally, January 20th 2251 would mark the day where Earth was cleansed of the Alien menace and the Terran Federation was borne, finally we were united, where each person was treated the same as the rest, where skin color and religion were factors no longer…it was too bad it took a World War and more than a century of alien occupation to get us to see eye to eye.**_

 _ **As the Federation rebuilt itself, the treasure trove of alien technology helped, from gene therapy and mods to laser, particle, plasma and mastery of railgun based weaponry and technology to fusion reactors and much more, everything we needed to come back strong. Of course, there were difficult times too, the nature and power of psionics was called into question, there were some who wanted to keep that power to themselves, others wanted it gone, but in the end psionics was made available to everyone, the Ascension Project as it was called, was created to awaken and train potential psionics users, with many of the instructors drawn from the resistance, which now established itself as S.H.I.E.L.D, potential psionics users were plentiful, and was continuing to grow as the human race as whole awakened a new power that would change them physically and mentally. With medical improvements in gene therapy and gene mods, diseases were all but nonexistent and the usual physical weaknesses that we had was minimized to say the least, humans now are physically stronger and more mentally capable the ever before.**_

 _ **While of this was happening, sociological changes were also taking place, the most of important among this was the creation of the "Human Paths", a philosophical discipline that was created to help channel our focus and discipline into our work using psionics. To elaborate, the Human Paths are a rigid code of behaviour and discipline that governs the day-to-day life of every single person, it acts as a physical and psychic focusing lens that allows humans focus their insatiable curiosity to bring out the very best of their powers and use them responsibly while avoiding illogical actions and uncontrolled emotions that can wreak havoc on their powers and cause them to endanger everyone else as psionics is also affected by emotion. Contrary to popular belief, each person can and almost always will take on multiple paths, however, almost all the time these people will have one path that they have mastered above all others, in layman's terms, solid performance at everything, master of one.**_

 _ **For 70 years we flourished, after we healed our wounds from the last war, we looked to the stars, we first colonised our moon, then the planet Mars, than Mercury and Venus, before moving towards the most distant planets in our solar system, colonising the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, and the eventually the entire Sol System, we also dedicated ourselves to integrate Gene Therapy and Gene Mods( otherwise known as Bio-augmentation) into the society, where once these augmentation procedures were seldom used due to the fact that we were once lab rats for the alien invaders, now we embraced these genetic upgrades slowly but surely, there were riots in the streets by those that did not wish to inherit our future by being trapped in the past, but nothing they could do could stop the march of progress, and sure enough our species embraced Bio-augmentations, and our physical and mental capabilities improved beyond our wildest dreams….then we looked out and saw the vastness of space and saw how small we are in the universe, but it did nothing to dampen our insatiable curiosity and our instinct to explore, we expanded to other star systems, colonizing and terraforming barren planets and turning them into garden worlds, during our travels into the stars we encountered new races, the logical Vulcans, the deceitful Romulans, the militaristic Cabal and the unified pirate empire known as the Fallen, there were conflicts and threats to us of course, the Romulan-Earth War on 2336 was one of them, not to mention various incursions and raids by the Fallen and the 7 year war with the Cabal that lasted from 2345 to 2352 which ended in a draw.**_

 _ **We also faced other threats, the Iconian empire from the Delphanic Cluster invaded our quadrant of the galaxy on the year 2400, intent on conquering it for the greater good of their religion, those that converted were spared, while those that didn't were culled like livestock with the unlucky few being turned in servitors, mindless, grotesque humanoid cyborg slaves meant to serve the Iconians, the war itself lasted for 12 years, entire sectors of space burned and planets decimated, it took a unified alliance of every species in our quadrant to push them back, but we did it, we won, and despite this setback humanity came back stronger than ever, we rebuilt and continued colonization, and for 750 years we flourished, expanding over a thousand worlds and creating an empire of own. Despite being beset by minor wars around us our empire stood strong, our people prosperous and proud, yet focused, devoted to their duties, courageous and never arrogant.**_

 _ **And then…they came, they fell upon the Galaxy like a storm, and swept all before them…monstrous abominations that devoured entire planets and civilizations…..we do not know of their origins, as the refugees that passed through our space were to terrified to even describe them accurately, all we did know is whatever that enemy was, it was clearly attacking and devouring everything.**_

 _ **On the year 3169, we encountered this race on the planet Tyran, a peaceful colony world, but the contact was anything but peaceful, as their fleet approached the planet, it was beset by unnatural and random violent weather anomalies that severely hindered military and public services, but what happened next threw the entire planet into chaos.**_

 _ **Almost a quarter of the civilian population in Tyran revolted, the once ordered and disciplined citizens turned into mindless cultists proclaiming the greatness of the "Genestealer" gods, with some turning into insectile monsters that cocooned their victims before devouring them. When the alien fleet arrived, it was something out of a nightmare, vast insect-like ships with claws and appendages, even eyes of some sort engaged the defence fleet, our fleet held the line but the superior numbers and complete and utter lack of fear or any base emotions from these aliens aside from a drive to feed, to make matters worse the cultists had take over most of the orbital defence platforms on the planet and were attacking the defence fleet with it, six ships were lost and the position of the fleet became unattainable, rescuing whatever survivors they could and ensuring that none of the aliens were brought aboard, they abandoned the planet to the ravenous invaders. It was during that day the aliens gained a name….the Tyranids.**_

 _ **And so our people mobilized for war, only this time, it was fight not just for our future, but for the entire galaxy. Intelligence Reports from S.H.I.E.L.D had shown that the alien horde was invading from the western fringe of the galaxy, numbering in the trillions, half the horde had separated to attack one half of the galaxy, the other had begun to attack our half, and we were right in it's path….and so began this glorious, doomed conflict.**_

 _ **I could tell you about our counter-attacks to unbalance and disrupt the alien advance, I could tell you, how, despite being woefully outnumbered against a ravenous alien entity with a hive mind and a biology that constantly adapted to whatever weapon we threw at them, we continued to fight on make the aliens bleed for their victory, the price they paid numbered in the billions, I could describe to you how for 100 years our Empire was steadily pushed back as the Galaxy was being burned to the ground and it's species and life drained away by ravenous monsters, I could go into deep detail on how every solar system was turned into a fortress, the non-combatants evacuated into safer zones while the defenders sacrificed themselves to buy humanity a little respite, I could tell you that our darkest hour came as the Tyranids were encroaching the Sol System and the cradle of our species, of how we devised a plan that would not only end the war, but would annihilate Tyranids throughout the galaxy, it was the final battle, they were besieging the Sol System with the Gravemind leading the assault, as the last fleets made their stand around earth, we fired our ultimate weapon, the Crucible, an psionic weapon of immense power that was designed to destroy the entirety of the Hive Mind, with the Grave Mind leading the assault, the weapon would wipe the aliens out, for good.**_

 _ **The best part was we didn't need to worry about collateral damage, everyone else was already dead anyway. As our fleets were being annihilated, overcome by sheer numbers, two world ships, each the size of planets, combined carrying the 35 billion human lives, a fraction of what our population once was and all of our heritage, our history, engaged their FTL drives and jumped away from Sol to the Langragian Point, a set of coordinates that lie just beyond the Milky Way Galaxy, as soon as those Arks left the Crucible fired, unleashing waves upon waves of mind shattering psionic energy that obliterated the physical and mental state of the Gravemind and the alien species into nothing ,all across the galaxy the Tyranids fell dead, their Hive Mind extinguished and their physical state dissipated leaving a devastated universe devoid of life, we looked back towards Earth one last time,…it's funny, we've always yearned for exploration, driven by our curiosity and to an extent, our fear of what might happen when don't explore. Now we are leaving, it's our turn to be explorers, as I sit in my room aboard the Ark New Hope, wondering about our future, as I finish my rambling about humanity in this short recollection of mine, I briefly wonder whether I could have written more, there was so much to write about, but then again it doesn't really matter, so many gaps to fill, I was never a historian anyway.**_

 _ **All I know is, that our future lies in the other galaxy, in Andromeda.**_

 _ **"Excerpt taken from Former Fleet Admiral Horatio Hansen journal"**_

 _ **"Date : January 25th, 3269"**_

 _ **"En-route to the Andromeda Galaxy, ETA unknown"**_

 _ **Codex : Humanity Part 1  
**_

 _ **Humans, alternatively known as Terrans, are the newest species too enter the galactic stage in Andromeda, and despite their smaller numbers, are an extremely advance scientific and technological society whose achievements in both those fields are eclipsed only by their courage, strong sense of duty, efficiency, skill and mastery of psionics. Humans have a fairly robust physiology. Their internal makeup and reproductive processes are typical of most bipedal mammals, and their size and proportions give the appearance of being strong, fast and agile.**_

 _ **Biology**_

 _ **Due to the unlocking of psionics, which granted humans 100% usage of their brain, granting them full muscle control, giving them increased strength with initial strength recordings of untrained humans being able to bench press up to 400 kilograms, although the individual becomes tired quickly, furthermore overexertion can lead to serious muscle pain and mental fatigue due to over taxation of the brain, as the muscle limiters in the brain can only be opened for a limited time by untrained humans, speed with some humans being able to run at 24 miles per hour on average for a reasonable period before exhaustion sets in, endurance as well as vastly increased mental capabilities. But by far the greatest advantages that psionics gave was the ability to bring into existence and reality psychic phenomenon's which would normally be considered impossible. Another trait that psionics had unlocked for humans was an increase in adaptive capabilities i.e a soldier trained in extreme conditions would be physically superior to a civilian by a large amount with trained soldiers capable of bench pressing up to 650 kilograms as well as running at 32 miles per hour.**_

 _ **Overtime, due to humanities new adaptive capabilities and a gradual, steady increase in gene therapy and mods humans have achieved a physical form that is best described as the next generation. Humans in general now have achieved a level physical capabilities long thought to be the real of science fiction, where in the past, during the awakening of psionics untrained humans could only maintain their physical capabilities for limited time before mental exhaustion sets in. Current humans are born with the ability to wilfully release the limiters that govern physical parameters, but the greatest advantage current humans have over pre-Andromeda humans is that their physical and mental attributes have evolved to the next stage. Physical parameters (strength, endurance, agility, speed, reflexes, durability, and healing factor) and mental parameters ( the nervous system has improved, reflected in a 300% increase in subject reflexes. Anecdotal evidence of marked increase in intelligence, memory, and creativity.) are vastly superior to their Pre-Andromedan counterparts.**_

 _ **Strength wise average human's now, with the help of much denser and more efficient muscles (with a 90% efficiency rating) can bench press up to 620 kilograms on average and have a running speed of up to 38 miles per hour, while trained soldiers can bench press up to 800 kilograms and run up to 49 miles per hour. This is without them deactivating the limiters in their brain, if the limiters are deactivated they receive a strength boost to their physical parameters by a factor of 3 for limited periods, which can be increased by training. Reaction times are measured in the micro seconds, with soldiers and trained humans having the upper hand at utilising it. The durability and healing factor have also increased, small to medium sized cuts and bruises can be healed in span of 10 to 15 minutes, however more critical injuries such as stab wounds would take at least a few days to heal, depending in severity, while broken bones would have to be reset to prevent it from healing the wrong way.**_

 _ **Aside from those enhancements, the organs of humans have also vastly improved compared to their pre-Andromedan counterparts, especially with efficiency, notably human blood is now a darker red than what it used to be, as the capacity and blood carrying capacity of the red blood cells have increased by 80%, the lungs increased efficiency also allows humans to breathe temporarily in low oxygen or polluted environments, the kidneys now have an efficiency rating of 80%, allowing toxins and waste to purged more effectively, similarly even the stomach has been enhanced, with food digestion and absorption of nutrients done more quickly while increasing the time span in which defecation occurs, in short humans spend less time going to the bathroom.**_

 _ **Additionally, humans are now capable of living up to 400 years on average, the longest living human currently is Archon Tiberius, at 550 standard years old.**_

 _ **Psionics**_

 _ **Psionics is the blanket term that refers psychic effects that includes telepathy, psychokinesis and pyrokinesis amongst others. Psionic capable races are shown to generate an invisible field around them, this field of energy controlled by the mind, in it's passive state it sharpens one's senses and perception, normal psionic users, known as Initiates, are capable of shielding themselves, enshroud their bodies with an energy field to boost their statistics, sharing thoughts with orders and projecting them in real time, though the latter is confined to a limited area, are capable of casting bolts of energy in the form of lightning, and are capable of using telepathy freely to enhance their combat skills and seize the initiative in a fight and possess the ability to utilise pyrokinesis with average skill.**_

 _ **High level psionic users, known as Adepts, which consists of most of the Special Forces Group known as N7, are easily one of the most powerful warriors the Terran Federation has to offer, psionics wise they are vastly more capable then Initiates, everything Initiates can do, Adepts do it better, with focus and skill that can only be considered second nature, due to their greater mastery of psionics, Adepts have privy to the knowledge of more devastating psionic techniques and are trained by either Templar's or Archons. Templars are an intermediary rank that an individual achieves as his mastery in psionics grows, once an individual achieves this rank, he or she has become an extremely powerful psionic user, able to use high level techniques with little to no effort and use low level skills as though it is as easy as breathing itself, also, once achieving this rank Templar's are allowed to train other psionics users.**_

 _ **The final rank for any psionics user is Archon, Archons are far and away the most dangerous beings in the galaxy, possessing the ability to create violent Psionic storms that can annihilate the minds and bodies of their victims, it is even rumoured that Archons have the ability to destroy entire planets and armies, though such rumours are unverified, as the Terrans keep the abilities of their Archons a closely guarded secret.**_

 _ **Culture**_

 _ **Human's in general are very intelligent, abnormally ambitious, highly adaptable, individualistic and thus, unpredictable. However, constant warfare, near extinction and sociological development have tempered their will and resolve. Just as humans remained the same, keeping the qualities that make them human, they have also developed an unparalleled sense of public service and discipline. Humans also wear elaborate tattoos, a practice dating back to the 24th century on the Milky Way Galaxy shortly after the war with the Cabal as a sign of victory, currently these tattoos are viewed as a sign of identity for each person, each individual.**_

 _ **Just as they are known for their individuality and adaptability, humans are also noted for their for their strong sense of public service. It is rare to find one who puts his needs ahead of the group. Every citizen, ranging from ages 14 to even the elderly at 300 years of age, serves the state in some way, as anything from a soldier to an administrator, from a construction engineer to a sanitation worker.**_

 _ **Human devotion and a strong sense of public duty is impeccable, and their society is very regimented and highly organised. It's certainly worth noting that the human military, is the center of their society. It is not just an armed force; it is an all-encompassing public works organization. The military police are also the civic police. The fire brigades serve the civilian population as well as military facilities. The corps of engineers builds and maintains spaceports, schools, water purification plants, and power stations. The merchant marine ensures that all worlds get needed resources. Since their culture is based on the structure of a military hierarchy, whatever changes that are applied and advances accepted by the leadership are quickly adopted by the rest of society with minimal resistance unless if said change does not benefit the faction in general. What is certainly fascinating is that unlike other military societies, the human military does not look down upon it's citizens, this is because in the eyes of humans, all have a important and valuable place in society, from farmers whose efforts keep the rest of their civilization from going hungry, to the sanitation workers who ensure that the city streets and sewers are clean. The second worst sin that can be committed in the eyes of the military is for armed forces members to behave and act as though they are worth more than other members of society simple because they are protectors, such behavior is not tolerated in the human military and depending on severity, may lead to capital punishment.**_

 _ **While humans are still very much individuals with their own personal desires and needs, their culture has evolved as such that they equate the self with the group, and to set aside all personal desires for the good of all. Each human, from childhood, so taught to have a very strong sense of personal accountability, the "human honour" that the other races of the Andromeda galaxy find so remarkable. The worst sin as a whole that they can make in the eyes of their people is to lie about their own actions. Humans who murder will try to get away with it, but if directly questioned, almost all will confess the crime.**_


	2. Chapter 1 : Initiation

**Hye there!...I just want to let you all know that I am sorry for updating late, I haven't and still am not well. being bed ridden for the past week, another reason for the delay was my inexperience in writing conversations and stories. So please forgive me.**

 **At any rate hope you guys enjoy this, don't forget to leave reviews now!**

 **And a I wish you all a very late Merry Christmas and HAPPY NEW YEAR!**

 **Chapter 2 : Initiation**

 _Date :Unknown_

 _Year :Unknown_

 _Location : Unknown_

 _All around him, there was death and fire, flames blazed around him and smoke covered the sky, he and his squad were engaged with the enemy…their weapons blazing as they slaughtered their foes before them, defending their world to the last breath. They were attacked by an unknown race that they had to encounter, intent on enslaving their children and pillaging this moon they were inhabiting. Not in the defenders watch they weren't. As soon as the alarms sounded all of the children and the elderly were efficiently evacuated towards the shelters in the safe zones, all around the planet pirates were descending down to the surface via dropships, most of the cities and towns were safe, their anti-air defences tearing down the invaders from the sky in droves, however this was a newly colonised planet, as such most of it's defences were focused on major zones of importance, leaving some of the smaller settlements with only adequate defences._

 _Still though, the situation was under control, the relief fleet was 4 minutes away, tearing apart the hopelessly primitive alien vessels in orbit, their species had only just consolidated their position in this system, which was why they didn't have much in the way of space based orbital defence platforms and no drone fleet, what few orbital defence platforms had easily weathered the initial attacks and attempted boarding actions by the aliens and were destroying the alien fleet, which had been caught in between the relief force and defence platforms, the once numerous alien fleet, numbering at around 700 ships, was now reduced to a paltry 27, losing most of their number in 5 minutes, still though, their tenacity and attempted suicide attacks on the relief force had forced them to slow their advance slightly. Nevertheless, a lot can change in 5 minutes, for better…or for_ _ **worse…..**_

 _All around him, explosions could be heard and intense combat, both from gunfights and hand-to-hand combat was reaching it's climax, it wasn't their skill and courage that was in question, nor was it their technology, strategies, tactics or competence. It was their numberless foes and their fatigue that would kill them, being a small, recently acquired colony, this small moon they were on had little in the way of military forces, but it didn't matter, their citizens were being evacuated and if they were to die here?...well it will be worth it._

A young man woke up, he remembers what had happened in the past, his grey eyes focused and alert despite just being awakened from his slumber by that dream, not out of fear or desperation, but out of habit and the feeling of adrenaline as he remembered the call of war, the blades dancing as they cut his enemies to pieces, his guns screaming as they tore through them, but in the end of the day, it doesn't matter, for there is only duty, courage and honour, and with that he shall fear no enemy.

Date : November 16th, Monday

Year : 4219, 950 years after "The Great Migration", 3 years before "Unknown Incident"

Time: 0600 Hours

Location: Planet Shanxi, Scipio Academy of Military Science

The bell from an alarm clock was blaring loudly across the room, a particularly small dorm that had enough to accommodate four students, who together formed Fireteam Principes, three of whom had been sound asleep after studying their asses of for their end of the year exams, to be held three days from now, which consisted of a paper test and field exam which was meant to push each squad to the edge of their endurance and skills, if not more. Pass this exam with flying colours, and their career options would be vastly increased, from being accepted into the Marine Recon Programme to being granted membership based on merit to join the Holy Grail of soldiering, the N7 Initiative, where the finest soldiers of the Federation are trained. Every child in the Terran Federation is trained for war, it's fitting, their race has always been beset by war, and their position in Andromeda is no different, surrounded by enemies, as such they were always prepared for war, every child received combat training at an early age starting at six years old, once they reach 9 years of age they would choose either to go a military academy or a civilian school, those who choose to become civilians are still involved in the protection of their homes and their nation, receiving training to become Federal Guards(FG) at the age of 14, with boot camp lasting for one year, despite being considered militia or citizen soldiers and not full time professionals and are instead citizen soldiers called up during times of war or crisis, due to military indoctrination since childhood, The FG's morale and capabilities are more than a match for the full time soldiers of the other races The Marines are the professional soldiers of the Federation, the children that do choose the military line enter a military academy to properly embrace the Warrior's Path, after their five year tenure in the military academy learning about the arts of war and how best to utilise their Psionic gifts in warfare, most become fully fledged Marines, training an extra year in bootcamp, with some joining the Marine Raiders, an elite commando unit that is highly respected and feared in the galactic community for the tenacity, adaptability and courage. These units are masters of asymmetrical warfare and unconventional missions. In a direct fight these men can tip the scale in their favour.

And then, there is the N7 Initiative, an elite club of some of the finest soldiers the Federation has to offer and some of the most feared men and women in the galaxy, the ultimate example of the "sword saint". There are two ways of being selected to join N7, either you are chosen from the ranks of the Marines after becoming a veteran soldier with the right "qualifications and mindset", or you are picked just after you graduated from any of the military academies for your talents or character. The N7 program came to be after reviewing reports from the old human empire during their time spent on the Arks heading to Andromeda, back then, there was no unified program, the Empire's elite soldiers were called collectively as Guardians, each with three specific classes based on their preference, Titan, Hunter and Warlock. While these three classes themselves weren't overspecialized, being able to adapt and react to any threat, there was insufficient cooperation between them, Titans, Hunters and Warlocks typically worked alone. Fireteams and squads were ad-hoc at best, and standardization was non-existent. While undoubtedly effective, the Guardians lack of team work and over emphasis on individuality had lead to staggering losses in situations where their enemies had been able to exploit their weaknesses and destroy them piecemeal. During their time in the Arks that had yet to arrive in Andromeda, the military leadership decided to reform the Guardians into a more organized and disciplined force without sacrificing that distinctive individuality and flexibility that made Guardians so feared. Thus the N7 Initiative was born.

Right now though, none of this mattered, three of these guys had more important things to do and had no time whatsoever to be dreaming about becoming N7 "Guardians" or even become Marines yet, instead they are more focused on waking up, trying to resist breaking their team leader's alarm clock and get ready in 5 minutes for their early morning warm up session.

"What the fucking hell?" said one of them groggily, he is the tallest of the four, brown skinned with exotic golden eyes, wearing nothing more than a pair of boxers, with morning hair that made him look like a bum, in truth however he was exceptionally accurate with firearms, especially with a sniper rifle, and was particularly talented in tracking and being the team's point man, the tribal tattoo on his face was coloured blue, with several eagle motives on the side. His name is Fabian "Hawk Eye" Havelock, Fireteam Principes, Rifleman,Scout and sniper artist.

His bunk mate, having taken the top spot since the start of their academy years, was also grumbling, albeit in a subtle manner, he's also as tall as his bunk mate Fabian and had jet black hair, coupled with mismatched eyes, one blue and one green, and his facial tattoos had dragon motives to them and were coloured red, and where Fabian had roguish charm, this young man was quite handsome, he is Nicholas "Nick Pyro" Rainier , much like their appearances, their attitude's couldn't be further from each other, where Fabian was extremely quiet and introverted, Nicolas was talkative and boisterous, thankfully, 5 years in the military academy had cooled him of a lot, and where Fabian was a precise instrument of death, Nicolas, being the Grenadier, wasn't subtle, as explosives tend to splatter enemies throughout the area.

"Great….what time is it?, and I was having such a good dream about us being N7 Guardians and getting all the girls and having a good time in Elysium." whined Nick. He would have continued his rant but the Fireteam's second- in- command stopped him.

"Shut it Nick, I don't need to hear your nonsense this morning!"

Michael "Warmachine" Irons is the Fireteam's second-in-command and the teams Designated Automatic Rifleman, in other words, a machine gunner , together with Nick, they both are tasked with laying down heavy firepower towards their enemies, he had a serious, taciturn aura around him and rough but overall good looking face, his facial tattoos were grey in colour and incorporated sword designs on it. Michael, like their leader, came from a military family, the Iron's family is known for producing excellent soldiers as well as next-gen weapons systems, and it shows with "Mikey", as his squad mates liked to call him, much to his ire.

"Come on Mikey!, you HAVE to admit that being an N7 Huskarl is not only cool, but we did all the girls, the guns, the gadgets, the guns, the prestige, the girls and the GUNS!" argued Nick.

"Nick, you said girls twice and guns three times, what the fuck, and besides, that sort of thing Is best left for later, I for one have no intention of getting into a ONE NIGHT STAND, and getting the tar kicked out of me by vengeful females" Mikey deadpanned.

"Sheesh Mikey, stop being such an uptight bastard and please, PLEASE cut the poetic English!" Nick whined.

"Fuck it!, and besides my superior language infuriates you, which serves it's purpose." stated Mikey smugly.

Meanwhile Fabian was watching the pointless banter go on between the two of them, he was about to step in when someone else did it for him.

"You guys never change do you?." a calm, almost monotone voice cut through their argument.

Standing before them was their Team Leader, Cadet Sergeant William" Ice Man" Shepard, he was quite handsome, the left side of his face had a grisly scar the stretched from his forehead all the way to his cheek over his eye, his eyes were gray in colour, cold and calculating. Like Irons, he to came from a military family, albeit one that traces it's origins back to the Milky Way and the old human empire. Unlike the others his facial tattoos lacked many of the artistic curves, instead having straight lines and right angles, his tattoos were grey in colour and had wolf motives. Where the others had earned their callsigns through hard work and unbelievable acts of skill on the course of their harsh training regime and simulations , Nick was credited with blowing up five training tanks and a VTOL during an exercise with nothing more than grenades , with the last kill involving him turning said weapon through random pieces of scrap, into a makeshift anti-aircraft mine that was detonated when it hovered over it, Fabian and Mikey earned their in a similar fashion to Nick, with Fabian being a damn good marksman, sniper and scout while Mikey was a walking arsenal that rained death with everything he had, from his trusted machine gun to his grenades. William was nothing of these, but then again, when you had ice water for blood and nerves of steel , and had razor sharp intellect on the level of a prodigy, it's more than good enough. That, and he was tried and tested soldier. He had earned his callsign in the anvil of war.

As soon as he said that all three members of the squad stopped what they were doing and rushed to stand at attention at the front of their beds. William watched them all with a calculative gaze, while he considered all of them his brothers-in-arms, having studied with them since the age of 9 in the academy, it would be terrible practice for him as a leader to be soft on them.

"I seem to recall, that I SPECFICALLY stated that all of you are to wake up at EXACTLY 0600 hours, now the time is 0610 hours, we are ten minutes late gentlemen," William said, as he looked at all of them before continuing, "so because of that our light workout will be extended by another two hours, so hit the showers, I want to see you out on the field by 0630 hours." he finished, the squad didn't complain, but instead snapped a salute and rushed to the showers.

"Well it's time for me to get ready" thought William as started to dress up, wearing a pair of grey shorts and a combat shirt, before quickly wearing his combat boots and exiting the squad's dorm and heading towards the training field. As he walked he felt a pang of nostalgia, it had been 950 years since humanity left the ruins of the Milky Way to come to Andromeda, and a part of him still felt a deep sense of connection to Earth, he had also been having dreams about the battles of the old human empire against the Tyranids, little snippets of the past that he dreams about, it was a recent phenomenon that had started to affect humanity, but not in a terrible way, scientists and Archons have both concluded that these visions of the past are proof that psionics also allow the user, in this case the entire human race, to see the events of the past, because it's recorded in their genetic memory, they still hadn't come up with a proper term for it though, and settled for calling the phenomenon "ancestoral flashbacks".

Whatever the reason though, William had to admit, he admired those soldiers, those warriors that fought the alien apocalypse to the last breath, in his dreams he could see lone squads, sometimes even lone men or women hold back vast alien hordes before succumbing to their wounds despite the fact that back then, they lacked some of the advantages in weapons and psi-abilities they had now. William knew he was a prodigy, while it was true that nine year old children these days had the intellectual capacity of 15 year old teenagers from a pre-space capable Earth and even then at that age he was unnaturally gifted in the arts of war, he always wondered privately whether he would ever live up to that legacy, being on the top and going beyond even that in _test scores and training_ would only take you so far, sure being the best in "H2H" or hand-to-hand combat or coming up with new tactics and strategies in class and exercises was fine and well, but in the end of the day as a soldier, your choices and action on the battlefield speak louder than any test score, and while all fourth and fifth year students in the academy were allowed to go on small scale combat missions against raiders and pirates, it was nothing compared to total war, though it did give them valuable insight on it. It is because of this, that he will strive to become the very best he can, to serve humanity to theend, to the bitter end.

"Excuse me, sir?."

William was pulled out of his musings by his three team mates, he mentally kicked himself for reminiscing to long. "Sorry about that, just thinking about some things, anyway let's start with our warm up, then we will begin our jog and lastly wrap this morning up with some light sparring." said William.

"Yes sir!" his team mates chorused.

William smiled as he and his team began doing their warm ups before going to their usual routine, namely 700 reps of jumping jacks, sit ups, deep squats, knee bends, leg lifts and push ups, In between these sets were 30 second breaks. After finishing their first course, they began their short "jog" all around the academy, in reality the short jog was 7 mile parkour session with the four of them using the obstacles in the academy and the surrounding areas as their playground.

As they continued their exercise William felt a telepathic connection between him and Mikey, which was also connected to the others.

" **William, can't believe it's so soon huh, wide-eyed nine year olds coming to the academy for the first time, now we are on the brink of graduating and heading towards the future as soldiers, it's like we've grown old somehow" Mikey commented with a nostalgic look on his face.**

 **The others looked at him with blank faces.**

 **"Huh, did you grow grey hair while we weren't looking?"**

 **"Great, Mikey has become an old bastard!"**

 **"Where is your walking stick Mikey? Hhahahhahahhahahha!"**

 **"All of my hate, ALL OF IT" Mikey grumbled.**

William checked his watch, it was 0845 hours now, classes were at 0930 hours, thankfully, today was Monday, both Monday and Tuesday were mostly relegated to Military Science studies, paperwork theory and Psionics class which lasted till late evening. Wednesday to Sunday was full on combat training and simulations in multiple environments. He decided to end their run now even though he wanted to finish at 0900 hours. Best to finish now so that his squad can shower quickly grab a bite of grub and head of to class.

" **All right boys let's head back to our room, take a bath, grab some food and head to class" said William. "Oh and Mikey don't forget to cut the telepathic connection with all of us, we don't need to see your secrets for the opposite gender" he continued, smirking at Mikey choking on his spit.**

 **" I just can't get a break can't I sir…" muttered Mikey as he cut the connection.**

The others just smirked as they headed back to their dorms to shower up. Seven minutes later all of them, with their uniforms crisp and clean, had rushed to the cafeteria, munched on some hash browns and sandwiches and were now heading to their first class, Psi-Theory.

As they were walking to their class room they were unaware they were being watched, in the Superintendent's Office, an old man was watching the four, a tough veteran of many low-key but ultimately deadly conflicts since the Terran Federation was introduced to the Andromedans . He is Lord Shaxx, hero of the First Contact War against the Asari. At 300 years old he had chosen to retire from active military service to support and teach the new generation, hence his current posting at Scipio Academy of Military Science. To his right and left were Brigadier Generals Petrovsky and Holland, the former is the Dean of the Academic Board while the latter is the Commandant of Cadets, right now these three were in Shaxx's office for two things, the first was to evaluate their students, the second was that they were waiting for their guests, namely, the current heads of the N7 Initiative and the S.H.I.E.L.D.

Shaxx couldn't help but feel pride as he looked at the dossiers and reports of his students, all of them would be excellent soldiers, unflinching followers of the Warriors Path that would stand tall against their enemies, and truth be told, they needed their warriors, their bastions, now more than ever. He was there during the First Contact War against the Asari 200 hundred years ago, stationed on the recently colonised border world Shanxi, a scout fleet had been dispatched from Shanxi to explore an in-system recently discovered device that appeared to be gateway or FTL system that launched ships to their destination much like a slingshot. Whatever the reason, their investigation was cut short when an Asari fleet had appeared on the scanners, the captain in charge of the scout fleet immediately followed First Contact procedures, namely hailing the oncoming fleet to ascertain their intentions. The Asari responded by firing primitive nuclear missiles en mass at the scout fleet. Long story short, despite the scout fleet consisting primarily of dedicated exploration of vessels and two frigate squadrons for a total of eight frigates, the Asari fleet was annihilated, but before the last of their vessels was vaporized under a hailstorm of Railgun and Pulsar battery fire among other things that tore through their unshielded hulls, the Asari commander arrogantly proclaimed " that the Asari Republic with the help of their Promethean Gods will annihilate your barbaric race".

Needless to say, the Terran Federation was more than ready, when the first wave Asari fleet, containing over 700 vessels, arrived at the edge of the system, they were in for a rude awakening, instead of encountering small ships, the encountered an entire fleet of warships, containing Warbird Battlecruisers, cruisers, destroyers and Raptor Squadrons augmented by Assault Carriers and Command Warbirds. The Asari didn't stand a chance, the moment they entered weapons range of the Terran Fleet, 250 cloaked ships of all types opened fire, their Lance weapons and plasma/laser batteries augmented by railgun and missile fire tore the Asari Fleet to pieces, the Asari weren't even able to lock on, the Terran ships were firing while cloaked, each ship was using advanced jamming arrays and holo-field systems, which scrambled their targeting arrays, to make matters worse was the fact that it wasn't just the enemy ships that were being attacked, it was their crew as well, high level Adepts and Templars on the Terran ships were assaulting the very minds of the Asari themselves, does that were not driven mad or had their minds extinguished were mind controlled and began to fire upon their own comrades. The entire battle was one giant turkey shoot.

The First Contact War didn't end there however, the Asari launched multiple attacks along the Federation border worlds, the entirety of the Asari sector fleets, numbering in the tens of thousands fell upon the Terran Federation, the Federation for its part, having remotely hacked Asari computer networks and gaining information from captured from Asari prisoners, who were quite confusing anatomically to say the least, found out that the Asari "Republic" was in actuality a vast, barbaric backwater of an empire that ruthlessly destroyed any race that didn't bow to their Promethean Gods and them. At any rate, fighting was incessant throughout the border worlds, with Shanxi being in the thick of it, it was there that Shaxx saw the full cruelty of the Asari, any civilian or soldier they did capture was ruthlessly tortured and executed, their " _fun"_ didn't last however, Shaxx personally made sure that any Asari that participated in those vile acts were slaughtered without mercy in the most gruesome way possible. An act mirrored by countless other Terran soldiers throughout the theatre.

All of this however, paled in comparison to what the Archons unleashed in the battlefield against the Asari. Entire armies worth of Asari had their minds extinguished in agony as massive Psionic storms blanketed the battlefield, and in some cases entire worlds. Their arcane and supernatural abilities that went far beyond normal Psionics users.

And yet,

There were still other Archons who were _above all others._

He was there on an Asari planet whose name he couldn't be bothered to remember, exterminating them pitilessly, when he felt massive waves of psionic energy coming from a nearby location, deciding to aid his comrade who may have been in trouble, an assumption Shaxx made because he couldn't get in touch with their ally in that area, so he and his unit decided to head to that zone and see what they could do to help.

It turns out they didn't need to do anything, all they found was hundreds, if not thousands of dead Asari, they could feel through their Psionic gifts that their minds had been extinguished as one would snuff a candle, others had been reduced to charred husks by lightning and quite a few were cleaved in half. At a distance he saw the hulks of three Asari frigates, one of them looked as though a giant hand had crushed it and thrown it towards the planet's surface with great force, the other two ships were barely recognisable as ships in the first place, looking as though someone or something had shredded them with a maelstrom of blades.

That was when Shaxx saw her.

 _She looked like a Warlock Guardian. Her armour and coat glinting in the sun of that world._

 _She looked to be at peace. Her facial expressions and emotions a mask of calm._

 _But that was a lie. Through the use of his gifts and his eye of the mind. She was something…else._

 _She was storm of energy unlike anything he had ever seen, then now and forever. The energy she exuded overwhelmed him. He could hear the faint sounds of the men and women under his command toppling to the ground._

 _He didn't….couldn't care about that. He himself was feeling awe and fear._

 _Awe, at the amount of power she radiated, power that should be in the realm of God. Awe, because she represented the very pinnacle of human prowess, a bar that was constantly growing._

 _Fear, because she…. for the simple reason, can't be considered human anymore._

Holland looked at Shaxx and spoke to him. " Shaxx , are you okay?, you spaced out for a moment."

"I'm fine" Shaxx responded. Holland nodded while Shaxx went back to his musings.

In the end the First Contact War lasted a year, Terran casualties amounted to a minimal 1755 dead, most of them were Federal Guards and Marines who were outnumbered with a few non-combatants such as the elderly and even a few children. Asari casualties were in the billions, at least 7.5 billion dead, with even more loss in material, that's without including the casualties incurred when seven Asari solar systems were annihilated, their planets bombarded from orbit and their planets reduced to nothing more than glass, including three Asari fortress worlds which were important in housing and constructing their ships and housing and training their soldiers.

They had won the war, but because of that humanity was feared even more, and they, as a species were an island in a sea of hostiles. The Asari, alongside their stooges the Turians and the Salarians, collectively known as the Council Races, despised and feared humanity for upsetting the bWilliamce. Shaxx scoffed at that, the _Council_ , as a whole were nothing more than braggarts and cowards, spreading their Promethean cults and annihilating those that did not believe them.

"A penny for your thoughts?". Shaxx looked up and saw Petrovsky looking at him with an enquiring glance.

"Shaxx is something troubling you?, you have been distracted for a while now." added Holland as she stopped reading her reports on the holo-pad she held in her hand to look at him.

"Nothing to worry about Vlad, Holland," Shaxx said, waving aside their concern." To be honest I was just thinking about my time as a Guardian Titan. During that extermination I saw many things, and what I will never forget is how _**she**_ annihilated them. To this very day it is one of the most awe inducing and frightful sights I have ever seen."

Petrovsky gave him a look. "You trained under Lord Saladin, an Archon as well, what's different about her?"

"Lord Saladin is a calm, collected man, who views death as a friend. Even when he was killing his enemies, he does not display any emotion, positive or otherwise. There is a reason he is called the "Storm of Silence" after all. _**She**_ on the other hand is the wrath of mankind made manifest, which fall without warning and without mercy. She is the polar opposite of my master." Shaxx concluded.

"She really must have been something." Holland said. Those Asari must have been pissing themselves in fear when they died."

Shaxx nodded in response as he pulled himself out of his thoughts to focus on the dossiers in front of him, all in all he was impressed with the current batch, they will go far. And of course, then there this is one particular fireteam, Fireteam Principes.

On another note, I'm pleased with our potential recruits this, especially our resident aces and trouble makers" Shaxx replied with a gruff tone that was tinged with amusement and pride.

"Ahh our resident aces and misfits, you know, I am still wondering how their Grenadier took out five tanks and a VTOL in one of those simulations, how in the hell can their sniper NOT miss under extreme conditons, and just how their heavy weapons expert is so destructive compared to his peers, the squad as a whole show great aptitude in their Psi-abilities, and don't get me started on Cadet Sergeant Shepard himself, that young man is uncannily gifted in all areas, but what really sets him apart is his attitude, no matter how tough the situation he is in, he simply refuses to give up and remains calm and collected throughout those trials. He has also performed in an exemplary fashion on Mindoir." said Holland as she peered into Shepard's first engagement.

"The Mindoir Incident?" Petrovsy stated, before continuing," What else is there to be said, Shepard has done the Federation a great service and fought with great distinction, his actions there saved countless lives." he concluded with a tone of finality.

Shaxx just looked at him with an amused expression. " You were quite adamant that the young man would become someone great after all, it's rare that you of all people would be willing to vouch for a raw recruit, talents aside."

"Call it gut instinct, and besides you also took an interest in him didn't you?"

"I can't deny that." Shaxx mused," I'm not very good at Precognition but from what little I have been able to see from his fate and what he demonstrated to me was enough to convince me that he become great in the future that and I do admit that in some way I always thought of him as a little brother I never had."

"At any rate," Holland interjected, " we all can agree that Fireteam Principes as a whole are an upcoming group of talented soldiers who have embraced the Warriors Path wholeheartedly."

"I concur with the both of you, and I believe that our two guest will be more than satisfied with their performance as well, but enough of that, are there any other squads that have or are equal in potential to Fireteam Principes?" asked Shaxx.

Petrovsky handed him another batch of files. " We have three other squads of potential hopefuls including Fireteam Principes's own squad, Squad Corbulo. The other two squads are Squad Scipio and Squad Valens. So we have a grand total of twelve potential Guardians or " Marshals".

"Well those "plebes" are in for a rough ride that's for sure" stated Holland, "At least half of them will be washed out and that's including fatalities."

Before Shaxx could respond his communicator beeped, accepting the call, he heard his secretary's voice through the speakers.

"Lord Shaxx, the visitors are here, the three of them are waiting at the lobby." said his Secretary.

Shaxx was confused, as was Petrovsky and Holland, there was only supposed to be two guests arriving today. "Please inform our guests that we are ready to receive them."

"Affirmative Lord Shaxx."

The comm line was disconnected on his secretary's side. Holland looked at both Petrovsky and Shaxx.

"So do any of you know of our mysterious third guest?" she enquired.

"We'll just have to find out." Shaxx responded as he heard the elevator that lead to his office arrive. The doors opened up, and he had to resist gasping in surprise, Holland and Petrovsky were likewise stunned at their mystery third person guest.

It was the same person the same Archon that devastated the battlefield that Shaxx was on all those years ago. Her power had not dimmed in the slightest. Her dark multi-coloured eyes and dark skin gave an exotic but dangerous look. She is Ikora Zey, an Archon, Warlock Guardian and one of the deadliest fighters in the galaxy.

To her right is Lord Saladin clad in his colourful and golden armor, now head of the N7 Initiative. Shaxx wasn't surprised, the former Director of N7, Tigurius had always favoured Saladin and had personally vouched for his promotion to Director, a decision which had proven to be a wise one. His N7 Guardians have been responsible for conducting raids and sabotage operations in the Citadel as well as providing reinforcements for S.H.I.E.L.D's assassins.

To her left is the current head S.H.I.E.L.D, Roger Anderson, the man is a serpent, he, alongside Saladin were responsible for causing unrest in Council space. Not to mention the numerous wet works operations and spy networks he had scattered throughout the galaxy.

"Ikora Zey, Lord Saladin and Director Roger." Shaz said, as he and his colleagues stood up from their seats and saluted them, which they returned. "I was expecting Roger and Saladin but not you Ikora, what is your purpose here?"

"I've seen much of that young boy called Shepard, his fate uncertain but his actions in each thread magnificent. In an age surrounded by enemies, talented soldiers are to be cultivated so that our race may rise again, I wish to see that young man." said Ikora.

"As for the both of us, myself and Roger are here to do what I told you in our last correspondence, namely to recruit potential talents into our respective agencies." said Roger with Saladin nodding before looking at Roger and said." Don't even think about scooping up all the talent in this academy."

"What makes you think I'll do that?"

"You keep telling yourself that Roger."

"Anyway, let's get down to business." Ikora interjected. " Let's start with the dossiers of your regular joes before viewing the best."

So the six of them settled down for the long haul, viewing and reviewing all the dossiers and even recordings from each simulations as well as the missions each squad has completed.

Time : 1830 hours

Location : Scipio Academy firing range

Class had finished an hour ago, but William was restless. He couldn't stop thinking about his exams which will happen soon, he wasn't worried about the paper portion of his exams, he was worried about the field portion. While he had no idea what the examiners had in store for him and his team he knew to expect the unexpected, and no matter what comes, he will have to face it anyway.

Sighing, he got into his stance, as he readied himself to fire his assault rifle, the Khvostov 7G-02T, with the "T" indicating it's status as a training weapon. The rifle is manufactured by Hakke Firearms, a company known for creating weapons that resemble those from old Earth. The Khvostov itself is a popular weapon amongst the Federal Guard and as home protection weapon. All firearms of the Federation utilise miniature mass accelerators and mass replicators to fabricate a micro dart from a tiny shaving of a block of metal contained in the magazine, the mass replicators work by replicating and fabricating a complete dart out of that tiny bit of metal, after which the round is chambered and the miniature mass accelerator hurls the dart at Mach 26, to date there isn't anyone or anything that can withstand that sort of firepower. Furthermore, like all Terran technology, the Khvostov comes with a bio scanners and Psi-receptors, ensure that piece of technology can only be used by the human who wields it.

As he started to gun down the targets with alarming accuracy, the difficulty is slowly ramping up, now the targets were flying all over the place, still he could target them with little difficulty, and instead of being flustered or panicked, he was cool and calm, each target he destroyed with efficiency, the song of war filled his head, but yet at the same time he did not lose his discipline and will. Still there were more targets to kill, and he had the right skill to do so.

As he fired upon the ever increasing number of targets, time slowed to a crawl, his already sharp perception and senses were enhanced sevenfold and now he could see the paths the targets were travelling. This particular skill is called "Divine Targeting", a simple low level skill that allows outnumbered soldiers to casually mow down a numerically superior enemy. It has no limitations save for one, it requires line of sight against an enemy or enemies, as such this skill is useless in ambush situation or situations where there is no line of sight.

After several minutes of incessant firing, he stopped, there were no more targets, all around the firing zone were targets that were perforated with holes. As he stood and admired his handiwork, William smiled, having relaxed himself.

" _The exams are upon us,"_ he thought, he touched his watch he wore on the left hand, it's face battered and scarred before continuing. " _For the sake our people, and for my friend, I shall be a bastion that keeps our enemies at bay."_ Smiling grimly, he decided to call it a day, and went back to his room to rest.

 **Codex : Humanity Part 2**

 **Military**

 **The human way of war is radical to the races of Andromeda in that they have no shape or form, at one moment human Marines are launching devastating, unpredictable hit and run attacks and in the next, they are tearing their way through the battlefield with unmatched coordination, speed and discipline, supported by advanced armoured vehicles, ranging from hover tanks to tried and true wheeled vehicles mass effect cores and war mechs.**

 **The human martial ideal is to utterly annihilate their foes with as little loss to their own as possible, deceit, deception and manipulation are a critical part of human warfare as much as discipline, adaptability, initiative and courage, known as a whole as the "Seven virtues of War". This has caused the some of their more violent enemies, such as the Citadel Council, to label them as "cowards". Needless to say, the humans laugh at these naïve notions. Despite having a stable population and a solid industrial base, humans are vastly outnumbered and thus choose to make the most of their resources and manpower.**

 **Contrary to popular belief amongst the lesser races, the humans have more than enough fire power, courage and skill to fight an enemy in a head to head engagement and possess in their arsenal many varieties of super heavy walkers and tanks.**

 **Additionally human technology is vastly ahead of many of the alien races in Andromeda from powerful, rapid fire railguns to plasma and warp based weaponry, there is no limit to human diversity and destructive potential.**

 **Militarism permeates human culture, everyone, from the age of six is trained to fight and harness their Psionic abilities to the maximum, though it should be noted that their early training tends to be more "spiritualistic" in nature, to help build their focus and to balance and control their own emotions. In keeping with their doctrine, the Seven Virtues of War are taught to the children as well. Training focuses heavily on overall physical capabilities as well as team work and other skills necessary to wage war and students of the Warrior's Path are expected to not only complete their training, but to embrace it as well. By the time training is completed at the age of 15, the average Marine has a vastly superior physique to normal humans, physical reports indicate that the Marines physical parameters are enhanced by a factor of three to four i.e Marines are now capable of lifting three to four tons. This is due in part to their training as well as special food types that allow their physique to adapt better to the harsh regime.**

 **Human firearms are some of the most advanced ever created, capable of hurling micro darts at Mach 26 and having advanced mass effect technology and miniature replicators that allow the magazines in each weapon to be utilized to the maximum, there is no shortage of ammunition and firepower for the humans. Additionally, plasma, laser and warp based weaponry for infantry also exists giving human infantry a great amount of versatility in dealing various targets.**

 **Close combat weapons such as power swords and pycho-reactive spears are also available for human infantry to augment their fighting prowess.**

 **The usage of drones mitigates the numerical disadvantage the humans face. From miniature hover tanks to flying drone gunships to stealthy recon drones, these useful machines with their advanced VI programming are very much the second fist of any human army.**

 **Aside from various hover vehicles and war mechs, there is also plenty of artillery and heavy weapon support is available, from the powerful and ubiquitous Battle Base to highly mobile and deadly Subjugator Artillery System to the extremely accurate Athena Cannon, all of which give the humans ground forces planetside unparalleled fire power. Teleportation technology is also extensively used by the human military. Devastating tactical weapons such as the Rift Generator and Nova bomb give humans the ability to wipe out entire armies en-mass.**

 **The humans also have at their disposal 50 fleets, dedicated to protecting the interests of the Federation. The 49th and 50th fleet's purpose is exploration and scouting. The ships of the Federation have at their disposal some of the most exotic and advanced weapons and system available, from wormhole generators allowing for instant travel to distant systems to powerful Brightstar Lance weapons capable punching through shields and ripping apart even the most heavily armoured hulls. Against the primitive ships fielded by their enemy, such weapons are practically overkill.**

 **Psionics plays an essential part in the human way of war, on the individual level human soldiers can strike their foes down with arcs of lightning, incinerate and slash them in half with fire and air manipulation, form blades of telekinetic energy, hurl projectiles ranging from 5kg rocks to massive armoured vehicles that weigh in the tons and even use their gifts to enhance their physical capabilities. Templar and Archon level psionics users are capable of effecting the outcome of an entire battle, whether it is a local battle or even a world. Entire armies and fleets can find themselves driven to madness or death, be controlled against their will and find themselves turning against their own allies. Aside from the methods listed above, the masters of these arcane arts are capable of seeing the future, however precognition is also an "inaccurate art" as the future constantly shifts and changes based on the decisions of individuals.**

 **Author's Notes**

 **As you can see I've based the Terran Federation on the Eldar from Warhammer 40k very powerful, with awesome technology but low population count, as mentioned above the reason why this chapter was so delayed was because of Christmas shoppings, dating my girlfriend and New Years celebrations galore.**

 **Anyway this is my first fic and it serves as a benchmark for what I need to improve, do leave some reviews so that I can find out what to improve. Anyway the next few chapters will be about Shepard's training as an N7 Guardian, his first mission and the introduction of the Hive and Vex.**


	3. Announcement : Hiatus

HIATUS ALERT

Sorry for the delay my loyal readers and viewers, I haven't been updating since my last chapter because after I wrote chapter 2 and uploaded it, I had a bit of writers block, compounding that problem was that I was having exams coming up soon and I had to use the time writing to prepare, indeed as I wrote this notice to you all I am in the middle of my exams…it is quite stressful, also..i had some family issues at the same time….my brother who inspired me to write this Destiny/Mass Effect with Warhammer 40k inspired elements crossover passed away 4 weeks after I uploaded chapter 2…

However, I'm here now, to reassure you and to apologise for not updating or saying anything to you all…I'm sorry guys. But know this…this story will NEVER be cancelled, and after my exams are over on June 11th, updates will continue. Till then.

Zone-Meister.


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